We’re rolling out a majorly revamped comments system today (it’s not live yet, but will be soon) that should make communicating on the site much easier. The biggest change is the introduction of “threaded comments” to replace the straight chronologically ordered system. The idea is to organize replies more logically and make discussing the post at hand–and other users’ reactions to it–easier to do and digest. Hit up any post with comments to start tinkering with the new system yourself, or read on to get the full rundown of what’s changed and why.
What’s threaded commenting?
Threading is a way to make comments read more like conversations instead of a bunch of disconnected single replies. Now, when someone says something interesting enough to get replies from other readers, all those replies will appear directly below the original comment. Each of these blocks is called a “thread”–kind of like in Gmail.
The first comment in a thread will have a few distinguishing features, among them, the number of replies in the thread along with the time of the most recent reply.
Click the arrow on the lower right side to open a reply input box directly underneath the comment–there’s no need to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to reply.
Once your reply publishes, you’ll notice that like in an IM conversation, your avatar will appear on the right.
Replies to replies–sometimes known as second or third (or fourth) level replies–will not be indented as is the custom in most forums. Instead, second and third level replies will be collapsed.
What happens when you reply to a reply? Why aren’t threads indented like in most tech forums, like Digg?
Replies to replies–sometimes known as second or third (or fourth) level replies–will not be indented as is the custom in most forums. Instead, the avatar will switch sides again–like in an IM conversation. All even numbered nested replies (second, fourth, etc.) will appear on the left side, while odd numbered replies will be on the right. Second and third level replies will also be collapsed.
Are threads still displayed in chronological order?
Each conversation will be displayed in chronological order. But organization of the conversations overall will be displayed based on popularity. The most popular conversations will migrate to the top. The most recent comment that has no replies will appear on top for 15 minutes before being filtered down. If a more active conversation receives a reply within those 15 minutes, that conversation will overtake the stand-alone comment.
Where did the plus and minus go?
The plus and minus, which was used to friend or un-friend a fellow commenter, has been replaced by a heart. Your friends will show up with a red heart, and the rest are empty.
What’s the deal with the star again?
Star commenters were readers who have 25 or more followers, or were designated as stars by a comments admin. With the introduction of threading, the number of followers required to attain star is increasing to 40. Commenter admins also hand out stars to commenters who may not have 40 followers, but illuminate our lives with flashes of brilliance.
Is there a way to view comments “old-school” style?
You can switch to the old style comments layout by clicking the “classic view” link in the comments bar at the top of the threads.
Don’t forget that we also have a Consumerist Comments code which are the guidelines for what kinds of comments to make, and to make sure you don’t get banned.
So, commenters–go ahead and kick the tires on threaded comments right here–and let us know what you think about the changes.
(Photo: Getty)
I don’t like this either.
And still no edit button? Boo.
And, yet again, I have to double post in order to get my comment on the page.
@SJActress: lol! i just had half a comment eaten by the gawkerbot on another page.
“the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
Looks good!
I dunno, having the comments at the top and then the bottom and all over the place kinda turns my head inside out. But perhaps it’ll make more sense in a few days. Right now it’s disturbing.
Will we ever be able to edit or delete our own posts? Now THAT would be fabulous.
@Marshfield:
Hmmm…formal rules about commenting is so…hmmm….so….Comcastic.
I couldn’t resist.
@Marshfield: Yes, please. An ‘edit’ would mean so much to some of us who might post heatedly and then wish to retract or tone-down comments (not including myself, of course).
Ugh, more comments per page please and keep it in chronological order. I can’t follow a thing here. Unless I comment (for no reason) to be able to go back to my comment and follow the thread. I don’t mind change at all but there is truth to the saying, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Put it in Chron. order and you’re one step closer.
Hey Editor Person! Wouldnt it make more sense to Indent replies to the right a few spaces?
I don’t like this at all. I was trying to find a comment I was reading earlier this afternoon (to “pick up where I left off”, if you will) and now I see they’re all jumbled up.
This is a terrible change. It makes it really hard to keep track of discussions. I wish classic view was truly classic. Trying to keep track of what side someone’s picture is on, what shape the box is, and what time the reply was made is giving me a massive headache. Clicking on a person’s name following the “@” symbol was straight forward enough.
I’m giving it a thumb’s down.
The layout is confusing me. This whole non-indenting thing doesn’t make sense.
I suppose I’ll get used to it eventually. Hopefully.
@Ein2015: I completely agree. The lack of indentation is a huge issue for me. I also have to agree that the re-organization of the order of comments based on ‘popularity’ is absolutely crazy… or, at the very least, bordering on arbitrary.
Perhaps I’m too used to commenting on digg but I’m not so sure. This current implementation, while promising, seems flawed.
OK, I commented on LifeHacker that I like the new style, but more and more I find it difficult to follow and, as someone pointed out above, impossible to “pick up where I left off’.
I’ve had greasemonkey aimed at this page for close to an hour and I’ve had only limited luck rearranging things back to the way they were. Wish me luck, eh? Gonna be a LONG night.
@Jim (The Canuck One): Good luck and be sure to share if you get it working!:)
Wow, much fewer comments per page now, too, which makes for a lot more pages to click through. I think I prefer the old, unimproved version.
Sweet fancy Moses!
I have to say I don’t like the new format either. I’ve gone back to the classic view. Usually I like site upgrades, and this is the very first I’ve come across on Consumerist that gets a thumbs-down from me.
I don’t know what it is, but somehow this new format makes me want to read the comments less. It seems like more work, somehow. There’s a lot less text per page, I think, and it’s harder to stay interested.
NEY , Don’t like the new format but appreciate your efforts and the option to go classic.
The new format seems like too much work and I’d rather go through as many comments as possible.I found some interesting and usefull comments by browsing through them all.
Thanks Again for more options !
- Too many pages. 20 posts/page is WAY too low
- Need to return to chronological posts
- The looks is actually pretty nice
- How do you strikethrough words?
I like the threaded view, but I don’t like having to page through comments. That’s just irritating.
Might I suggest the ability to choose classic as default for all articles vs having to switch on every article.
Once I respond to someone, it pushes the post to the top, therefore I “lose my place” when reading the other comments.
I think that is the biggest issue when going back to an article, you can’t read comments where you’ve left off
I also prefer “classic view” where I can “pick up where I left off”.
20 comments per page is was too low. At least put in a “First Page 1 2 3 4 5 Last Page” option so we don’t have to scroll thru all pages to get to the latest entry.
This is a gawker-wide change… Consumerist is just a ‘consumer’ of it. So all these complaints are going to be second hand at best. Did someone else already say that? Perhaps, but I can’t tell with only 20 comments per page.
@sarusa: And the main-boys at Gawker apparently don’t give a damn what anybody thinks (from tone of the main post about the change).
Is this a consumer issue, Consumerist?
Eh. There are lots of websites. I won’t stick around with one that annoys me. Let your wallet (or ad-based view revenues) do the talking, right? I’ll check back in a week to see if the situation has improved.
Adios!
The threading is a good change, but wasn’t that available with a Firefox add-on? And the 20 per page is really annoying. Maybe we could have a “preferences” page, where we could change it up to where we like it?
The Good: The Look
The Threading
The Expand All Button
The Bad: The Collapsing to Being With
The 20 Per Page
The Icon Side Switching Rather Than Indent
The Ugly: The Lack of Chronological Order
(That last one’s a dealbreaker, I think. Seems to almost undermine the beauty of threading.)
@SunnyLea:
Er… The Collapsing to Begin With.
(The Lack of an Edit Button?
)
@SunnyLea: yes!
DO WANT EDIT BUTTON!
maybe if we make an edit button lolcat, consumerist will give us an edit button!
@SunnyLea: I agree the order is odd, but it’s at least going by last updated/touched, rather than having to jump to the last page.
@SunnyLea: totally agree!
wut the heck first post should = top
I don’t like it one bit, although maybe I’ll eventually get used to it.
I will say I think only 20 comments per page in “classic” view is way too few.
I am kind of the fence on these new changes, but we REALLY need an edit button!
This will make it easier to follow those long threads where twelve people are having six different conversations and I can never figure out who is replying to whom. Nice move! Or at least I hope it cuts back on all of the posts where people go off on crazy tangents when they think someone’s offended them – or they’ve offended someone – when really they just read a comment meant for someone else.
Good work.
I’m sorry but I can’t take it anymore-I need 100 post per page again.The new format is too busy and seems like more work.
Again,thanks for even considering a change and upgrade.
This thread is up to 144 comments on 8 pages. 6 too many. I just hacked the url at the top ?cpage=8 to jump to the last page.
I can’t tell what the hell is going on anymore. Two comments in a row, and somehow one is 20th and one is 70th. This is suxxors, and VERY confusing. Not because it’s NEW, but because it’s unnecessarily stupid.
I still want my EDIT button…PLEASE.
Ohmigod, the horror! What is going on!? I’m so confused!
These new comments are very confusing.
I hate the 20 per page, bring it back to 100
Better yet Consumerist.com page styles from last week FTW!
Horrible. As others have said, hopeless if you try to come back later to pick up where you left off. Lots of comments will just be “lost” and never read by many people anyway, so what’s the point of bothering? Reading down through the comments is like time travel in a bad way. The 20 post per page thing is annoying too, and persists in classic mode.
Fantastic! I love it! And it works with Firefox!
Congrats! Slashdot had this 8 years ago…
I love commenting!
I’m fed up with trying to post on Consumerist. I love reading it since it keeps me informed, but it’s very frustrtating to not be able to comment. I’ve been submitting comments for over a month now and none of them get posted. I feel like the poor kid standing outside the exclusive country club begging to get in.
Just wanted to echo the thoughts of others here: I hate, hate, hate the fact that the comments are all out of order. I read part of this thread yesterday and when I came back this morning, it was impossible to figure out where I’d stopped reading. It makes me not want to even bother coming back to discussions I’ve found interesting.
As for the new look, I rather like it, although I wish that replies were indented a bit for ease of reading.
OK, how do I get more comments per page? 20 posts per page is plain tedious. All on one page would be ideal, of course, but the old 100 per page was alright.
@cerbie: …and non-chronological order is bad. The layout of posts (threaded/flat), number per page (I can haz 1000?
), and order of posts (evil/chronological) should be made options that are saved (so it does not need to be changed as finding the link and causing the page to be reloaded).
@cerbie: I don’t think it’s actually twenty POSTS per page; rather, 20 threads per page. So if you have a thread with 100 posts within it, they will all show up on that one page, along with 19 other threads. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
@MissPeacock: that looks right, but that still means it can be 20 per page, and it is difficult to find anything. Case in point: I could not search for my name to find the last comment to start reading from again (I haven’t come back to this post since I last commented), as I gave threaded view a chance. It was not on any of the pages (well, as part of a comment title), using FF’s find in page. No sweat with classic view. Expand all didn’t seem to work.
If threaded view is to be useful, it needs to show the full thread. As in, a full tree, with all usernames and dates, all nicely indented, like threaded views in forums and ML archives. IE, I should have to do no more work than previously to find a certain comment to start reading from, just have better organization.
Then, it again needs more posts/threads per page, like 100. In classic view, this post’s comments span 2 pages. Easy. In threaded view, it takes 5.
I do like the new comment being visually right under the comment being replied to.
Yeah, not liking this. I agree with the others who have said it’s hard to follow comments if you come back later. If you insist on it being threaded, can you at least use a conventional format – like indenting threads. The icon switching sides doesn’t cut it for me.
I liked this at first, but now that this thread is up to 8 pages I see how difficult it is. I switched to classic view to try to figure out where I left off.
It would be nice to have an option in my profile to use classic view all the time, instead of clicking it in each thread. (An extra mouse click! O, the horror!)
And I really do like having 100 comments on each page. If I’m searching for a comment left by someone it’s much easier to search 100 comments at a time, rather than searching 20, move to another page, search again, and so on. (MORE clicks! What is the world coming to? [*gasp*])
I appreciate the time and effort that went into the redesign, but I’m spoiled by the old format. And somehow I never had much trouble following conversations. It was easy enough to backtrack if I needed to, though most people are clear enough in their posts to make it obvious what they’re replying to.
@nsv: Yowza, I just posted a comment and switched from classic view to threaded view. And switching back to classic view bounced me back to page 1. [expletive self-edited]
Can we get some pagination for multiple page comments? Sometimes I know where I left off last time I visited the thread.
And right now I’m demonstrating something else, I’m not reading the most recent comments to find out if others are complaining about the same thing.
OK, now in classic view, it shows 100 per page.
But, if I reply, it goes to threaded view, so I have to go to classic and find that post again to continue.
I like it! Hip hip hooray for the improved comments feature!
Aside: I don’t think threaded view is bad, just that classic/threaded should be stateful, in a cookie, and chronological order is the only order that ever makes any real sense, if you actually intend to read all the comments. Also, both views should show boatloads of comments per page.
Finally.